Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

Vertical Marketing: Discovering a new prospect world by reinventing your message

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A few weeks ago, I posted an article mentioning that many inside sales reps tell me that Marketing isn't getting them enough leads, sales management is in transition and directionless, the Field is in conflict with Inside Sales, and on top of that, people aren't returning our calls. In other words, we don't have enough great leads. The bad news is that this is happening at every company under the sun, so changing companies may not help you much.  The good news is that you can really do something about it, and today's post is about the concept of vertical marketing, and how you can apply it in your sales territory.

To begin, let's say that you've sold successfully into a company in your territory that operates in the Financial space, and you sell web content management solutions. Believe it or not, you're now an expert in Content Management for financial companies. So go ahead and determine all Financial companies in your territory, and begin calling them. Start with the highest-level executive responsible for your product focus (e.g. VP of Internet Marketing) and lead with "We specialize in content management solutions of financial institutions."  Sure, you specialize in Content Management for everything under the sun, but try to craft your message for the specific vertical. You'll find more ears open to your non-generic opener, and we've found, in coaching thousands of reps, that you'll either have a conversation, or get referred to a great contact that will engage with you.

You'll also find savvy execs who'll ask you "What's so different about how the Financial Industry uses Content Management solutions?" I hope you're prepared with an intelligent answer that you thought of in advance. One idea could be "Content for Financial companies involves a lot more security issues, which can involve multiple search paths and passwords," for example.

You've already successfully sold into various verticals, so why not pick 2 or 3 of them this week and start your own campaign. Go back and ask one of your customers how he or she is using your solution to save money or sell more of their products. Now you'll have vertically-oriented user stories to use as testimonials. If you use this sales technique, you'll increase sales this quarter, and have a way of doing business that will build sales success for years to come. I teach this in my telesales training course because it works. Add it to your Best Practices playbook.

Handling sales objections: outrageous closing lines

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This week many of my customers are in "shut down" mode as people take vacations. So instead of giving my usual sales techniques tips, today's post is about a couple of funny responses to objections from my past. Read ahead, and share your own classic objection handling lines with the blog.

"If I had your money, I'd burn mine." I worked with Tim Mattis at the 2001 Dating Service, my first real sales job, where we put lots of nice folks together in the pre-internet dating era. It was commission only, and people would walk in to talk with Tim and I, who were the only salespeople. For $420 a year, each person would receive a monthly envelope with 6 "matches," consisting of a photo and a little background on the person. When a potential customer objected to the price, Tim would respond: "Oh come on, Jim, if I had your money, I'd burn mine."

"It's so easy to use, even Ray Charles could do it!" Vince Amodeo was my sales manager at Modern Office Machines, where I sold photocopiers, coincidentally my next sales job after the dating service. Many of our sales were made by placing a copier for evaluation at a customer site, training the people to use it, and letting it stay there for a week. We closed 90% of our business that way. Occasionally, someone would voice the concern that the controls were difficult to use, and Vince would get a big smile on his face, hold up his hands, and say "This is so easy to use, even Ray Charles could do it!"

Now these are two techniques I DON'T teach in my telesales training course, but when I sit around with other salespeople and have a beer or two, we end up talking about outrageous closing lines we've heard, and these are the two I usually bring up. What are yours?

Motivation and Ethics: Why we won’t give up on anyone

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This week and next, many of my customers are in "shut down" mode as people take vacations. So instead of giving my usual sales techniques tips, I'll share a couple of stories from my training world that you might find motivating. If you're at work, they're short, so you can give them a quick read and get back to work.

I've trained and coached hundreds and hundreds of inside sales reps, and there's not one person I've ever given up on, regardless of the perceived lack of sales techniques on the part of the rep. Everyone can be a star, and I'll tell you why I know this. Years ago, I taught school in a Special Ed program. My students ranged from aphasic to dyslexic, and my kids came from east side San Jose, where many of the families were living conditions could be rough. One week, I substituted in another teacher's class. This particular teacher didn't communicate well with the students. She was very set in her ways and inflexible. When I walked into the class, since they knew a substitute teacher would be coming in, the kids were jumping all over the desks, and a bunch of swear words, in English and Spanish, had been written on the chalkboard. Most of them were misspelled. So I stood in front of the class, got their attention, and asked the ringleader to close the door, stand by it, and let me know if anyone was coming down the hall. "Those are some very interesting words you've written on the board," I said, "but they aren't spelled correctly. Let's have a spelling lesson." So I picked the first one, and said "Is this the right way to spell F***?" One girl raised her hand, said no, and spelled it correctly. "Great, I said, let's move on to the next one." And I really had their attention. So we worked through all the words, and got them spelled correctly. Then I erased the words, and said "When you misspell words, it's a sign of ignorance, and I'm not gonna let anyone tell me my class is ignorant." And then I told them something really important. "This lesson is just between us, because if you tell anyone what we just did, I'll be fired, and you'll have Mrs. So and So back here tomorrow, and for the rest of the year. No one ratted me out, and I ended up having them for a whole month. They learned a lot, were attentive, and did their school work extremely well.

The ringleader really had a tough life. Hid dad and two of his brothers were in prison, and he spent a lot of his time beating up on the other kids. But we teachers did everything we could to keep him in school, although privately, many thought he'd eventually end up in prison, too.  A few months later, I left teaching school, got into high tech sales, then a few years later started my training company. Ten years after the classroom experience I told you about, I was in a bar in downtown San Jose when I got tapped on the shoulder. Guess who? It was the Ringleader, nicely dressed, and with a cute girl on his arm. I asked him what he was doing now. "I'm a programmer for Sun Microsystems," he told me. I asked him how much he was making, and it was $60,000 a year, par for what engineers were making in those days. He'd made it!

And that's why I know that everyone can make it, and it's what ethics in teaching is all about. When I teach a telesales training course, occasionally someone will hear a concept and tell me it's too tough, that he or she just can't do it. And I remember the Ringleader, and work extra hard to make sure I take a little extra patience in coaching that person. Some inside sales reps I teach are already high level performers. Others are scared, shy, or lack confidence. What they share, along with the Ringleader, is a wish to succeed, even though they may not know how to do it just yet. There is nothing easy about telesales. But the hardest part is getting the job itself. Next hardest is honing the skills it takes to excel. And yes, any one can do it, you just need the motivation to succeed. Just ask the Ringleader.

When you buy “quality,” you only cry once: handling price objections

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Today's post is about handling price objections. Overcoming sales objections is a big part of sales, and I'll bet your product or service isn't the cheapest. If you're in the Silicon Valley or in New England, it's probably among the most expensive. I'll also bet that if you're at a high price point, the quality of your product is exceptional. One of my mantras is "when you buy quality, you only cry once." And that's when you fork over your hard-earned money for a high quality product, so you cry a bit. Because it is high quality, it usually performs well over a long course in time, and you've actually saved money, time, and grief over the lifetime of the product, as opposed to what would have happened had you gone cheap and bought inferior goods.

And this is the argument you'll want to use when talking with a prospect that doesn't want to pay your price. There are a few ways to craft it, and here are several of my favorites:

1) Our goal is to build a high quality product that you'll be continually happy with. We can't do this unless we pay our engineers top dollar. We hire the best to build the best product. And we can't hire the best engineers unless we sell our product with enough profitability to pay them.

2) We want to be here for you today and tomorrow, year after year, building great solutions that will make your job (and your life) easier. We can't do that unless we plug a lot of money into R&D every year. This year it was ($XX or X% of revenue --- look it up in last year's annual report for your actual numbers). Corporate America is littered with the bodies of companies that failed because they didn't charge enough for their products and went out of business. That's not our business model.

3) (To be used when the competitor to whom the prospect is comparing you is in your same geographical area). My competitor is a very good company (never slam the competition), but frankly, they're only 50 miles from here, and if I thought they were a better company, I'd be working for them. I want my customers treated well, and I want them to have the best solution. That's why I'm here, and why I want you to be my customer.

4) Our pricing is "fair," not "high." OK, if I could give it to you, I would. But I can't. To arrive at our pricing structure, our executive team asked how we could build the best solution possible, pay for great engineers, support, marketing, and salespeople, and still make a little profit. And they arrived at the price, which is a fair way of doing it. I'll bet your (the prospect's) company does it the same way. So I hope you'll come on board and join us, because we're trying to make the pricing as fair as possible. And we'll never sacrifice quality.

As I was writing this, I reflected on some purchases I made that were tough, because I paid more than I wanted to be the quality I knew I needed to have. One was my car. Another was a house I bought (I did a crazy thing, buying a house I'd never stepped into. Still haven't). And you know, just about every time I make a capital purchase, I ask the salesperson what the next level up is before I buy the product. 50% of the time, I need the higher end solution, and buy it. So go out and be really proud that you're representing a high-end, expensive solution. You can tell a great story about why it's worth the money. And you can tell about a time you yourself spent more money than you wanted, but got a superior solution that cost you less in the long run. You can tell the prospect "when you buy quality, you only cry once." And yes, this is exactly what I teach in every telesales training course I teach. Add this sales technique to your Best Practices playbook. And if you have another technique for handling price objections, post back to the blog and tell me about it!

Frustrating, annoying, unusable: Three clue words that lead to sales success!

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Frustrating. Annoying. Unusable. These words are three of the most common used by prospects to describe a product or service that isn't working well for them. And they're using these words because they're talking to you about potentially changing to your offering, and telling you why they're unhappy with what they're using now. Many inside sales reps, though, ignore these clue words, and instead of asking the prospect to elaborate on the pain point, begin feature dumping all over the place, describing features and benefits like crazy, but failing to use the clue to begin the process of quantifying the scope and return-on-investment (ROI) value of the problem. Let's talk about how to fix this.

Here's an example of how it shouldn't be done. The prospect is a Testing Manager:

Prospect: "It takes forever to build scripts with our current regression tester, and it annoys the heck out of me and the team, because we're getting pressure to get out the new release. How soon can you get me a demo?"

Salesperson: "I think you'll find that our GUI is terrific, and you'll be able to build scripts faster than your current solution. I can fit you in for a demonstration webinar next Wednesday. Work that work with your schedule?"

Prospect: "Yes, I'll get the team together to take a look."

Salesperson: "Terrific. I'll send you a confirmation email, along with a dial-in keycode. Anything else I can answer before I let you go?"

The problem here is that the rep doesn't know about the problem (he or she didn't ask), and is just going to deliver another unqualified webinar. Maybe the webinar goes well, and the rep keeps calling, but after 2 weeks, there's still no PO. Not only that the rep can't reach the prospect, and the rep's calls aren't being returned. Sound familiar? It should, because it's probably happened to all of us (me included, what I was a junior salesperson). So how do we fix this, and accelerate the sales cycle? By asking the prospect to better explain the problem, instead of jumping prematurely into delivering a demo/webinar.  How about improving the call so it goes like this:

Prospect: "It takes forever to build scripts with our current regression tester, and it annoys the heck out of me and the team, because we're getting pressure to get out the new release. How soon can you get me a demo?"

Salesperson: "Tell me a little about that new release, and the internal pressures you're running into."

Prospect: "We have an important upgrade that will fix a lot of the problems in our last release, and included is a new feature set our customers have been asking for. We've got hundreds of customers lined up to buy this upgrade, and they won't buy additional licenses until the old problems have been fixed. Our current regression tester has blown up on several tests already, and the VP of Sales is putting pressure on engineering, because she needs the revenue this quarter."

Salesperson: "Do you have a sense of what kind of revenue is going to be generated when the new release is ready to ship?"

Prospect: "Well, it's conservatively 2000 licenses, and we're charging $495 for the upgrade."

Salesperson: "That comes out to $990,000, does that sound about right?"

Prospect: "Right, and the quarter ends in 60 days."

Salesperson: "I can see why the VP of Sales is concerned. If we divide $990,000 by 60 days, it looks as though there's a lost opportunity cost of $16,500 per day. That's a lot."

Can you see what we're doing here? We're now fully understanding what the ramifications are of not finding a solution. Now you can do your demo webinar. So why hasn't the prospect called us back after the webinar? Busy in the lab, trying again to get the old product working, broken ankle in a pickup game and he or she is out for 3 days, could be anything. But now you have the power to call above the Testing Manager, maybe to the VP of Engineering (and you did begin the sales process by calling high and getting passed down, didn't you?) You can tell the VP that you know that his or her company is losing $16,500 a day in delayed sales, and the VP can accelerate your sale again.

In each telesales training course I teach, we spend a lot of time talking about clues, and how to address them. The clues commonly begin with words like "annoying," "frustrating," or "unusable." When you hear these words, or those similar to them, perk your ears up, stop "selling," and ask for elaboration. It's your key to getting important ROI information that will get you the sale faster. This sales technique will increase sales, and help you to understand your prospect's situation more fully. Add it to your Best Practices playbook.

Motivation and Enthusiasm Part II: Create enthusiasm from your past sales!

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Last week I discussed why it's important to be enthusiastic about your solution when discussing it with your prospects, and how it can be a great self-motivator through tough economic times. The business reasons are that you'll increase sales by selling faster and selling more. It also makes your job a whole lot more fun. And if you can't have fun on your job, you've either got to develop a way to have fun, or find another job. Sometimes, you really have to think creatively to generate something new for you to be really enthusiastic about. Today's post is about how you can generate your own enthusiasm through discovering a little more about your customers. I have two quick stories, one about how a customer story from my inside sales days resulted in a story that pumps up my enthusiasm even today. The next one is about something I learned quite recently about my own inside sales training company. I hope both of them will motivate you to think out of the box a bit and find stories from your own world that will enthusiastically motivate you every morning when you get to work.

When I sold software debuggers, one of my best clients was Watchtower Farms. And yes, they were Jehovah's Witnesses, the same group that prints Watchtower, which I'll bet you've had left on your doorstep at one time or another. Now I'm not a religious person, but I sure wanted to know what they were doing buying so many debuggers, so I called up my customer, and asked. He told me that they print Watchtower in every language in which there are over something like 100 speakers, and they had to develop fonts if the language did not yet have a typeface. That's where my debugger came in. He said they also contributed the new font to Stanford University's linguistics department, and Stanford always used it for an upcoming article in its newsletter, the Carrier Pidgin. So my debugger played an important part in documenting the world's languages, and I started telling new prospects about it, because I thought it was really terrific!

Here's another idea on how you can generate enthusiasm. Those of you who've been to my website know I've got some exceptional testimonials. Both sales execs and sales reps are happy to give their real names and companies, and describe quantitatively how we've made their companies lots of money, and their reps a lot happier and more productive. Several people I trained as inside sales reps I knew had gone onto executive sales management positions, and I started wondering how many there were. It wasn't an easy job, but through LinkedIn, Google, and a few other tools, I was able to find over 120 of them. Over 120! Was I enthusiastic? Very much so, because it showed that our training might very well have contributed in several areas to these folks moving up the ladder. So I put their names on my website, because I'm really proud of them. I remember most of them very well, because they were exceptional reps. Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, was one of them. So was Ingrid Steinbergs, Senior Director of Sales at CT Summation. Ingrid was a Lead Generation rep when she went through my training class, and like Gary, she's really gone places!

In addition to putting the names of these fast-moving sales execs on my website, I tell every one of my prospect companies about them, too.  So the point of today's post is that if you think out of the box and analyze what you've done for your customers, you'll find that you'll have great stories to tell about how you've helped people. This is a motivator that generates enthusiasm on the part of both you and your prospect. Prospects love hearing about people like them that are successfully using your solution. So think about some successful sales you've made, and why it made your customers successful. And add these stories to your Best  Practices playbook.

Do you have something you do to generate enthusiasm on your call? Share your ideas! Tell us about it and we'll post it right here.

Enthusiasm: an important motivator and tool to increase sales

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Last week, I bought something I didn't think I was going to buy, and I want to tell you what the salesperson did that was terrific, because you can do it, too. I continue to be reminded of how important it is for sales professionals to be as enthusiastic as possible when discussing their solutions with prospects. It's really easy to fall into the habit of drably discussing the solutions we sell, because we sell them day after day, and the story doesn't change much. But enthusiasm is catching. This post is about revisiting how you can pump enthusiasm back into your presentation, and I'll tell you how someone got an unintended computer sale from me last week because he did.

I went into a megastore with a friend of mine last week because his computer broke and he needed a new one fast. OK, the store was BestBuy. A fellow named Spencer was the sales rep sold my buddy his new computer, then noticed that I was looking at a row of lightweight netbook computers. He got really enthusiastic about how small they were and how much you could do with them, and was really excited by how powerful they were, too. I told him I wasn't buying today, my pal Dave was, but it didn't stop Spencer, who showed me 3 or 4 additional neat things. On the drive back, all Dave and I could talk about were the netbooks. And the next day I returned, and bought one from Spencer.

Did I really need to buy the computer? Yes and no. My laptop computer was 6 years old, and I knew eventually it would give out on me, probably in the middle of an important business trip. But I didn't have to buy that day, from that store, or that salesperson. The enthusiasm of Spencer was catching, and that's the main point of this story. Here's another: Spencer wasn't on commission, it was salary only! He's just damn good at what he does, has fun talking to customers, pumps up the enthusiasm, and sells the product.

Pete Caputa, my salesperson at HubSpot, my website's Content Management provider, is another sales rep who's enthusiastic about everything he sells, even though I know he's told essentially the same story hundreds, if not thousands of times. And his enthusiasm is a big reason I'm his customer, because I figured if it was as good as he said it was, he'd be just as enthusiastic being there for me if anything ever went haywire with his solution. Like Spencer, Pete's full of great ways I can use his solution to make my life easier and more productive. So what can we learn from all this?

We all get used to telling the same story, and it gets old. It's not old to the prospect, though, so it's important to pump it up a notch (as Ed Cronin at PowerSoft used to say) and discuss your solution with the same level of excitement as you did when you first started selling it. You've really got to believe that your solution is going to dramatically improve the lives of your prospects, and if you don't believe it, you've got to change companies. As you can tell by this story, I watch how people sell to me, and you should, too.  In every telesales training course I teach, I mention that you take a closing skills class every time someone attempts to sell you something. Watch what he or she is doing to communicate with you, and I'll bet you'll notice the most effective of them have lots of enthusiasm, too. If you're a little behind in the enthusiasm department, try to "pump it up" on your next sales call, and re-insert that chapter in your Best Practices playbook. And next week, I'll add one more post on this important topic, and how you can generate enthusiasm based on sales you've already made.

Increase sales success through better call notes

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Taking great notes during an inside sales call is a necessity, but so basic that many reps I've coached during our telesales training classes have forgotten how to do it, as they've improved their other skills. And these are pretty good reps, too. But because they missed a clue and didn't write it down, the call wasn't as powerful as it could have been. So let's review how to take great notes, and check your own note taking to ensure you haven't "backslid." Here are some fundamental concepts:

1) Many conversations have a number of buying "clues" from the prospect, that you may not necessarily want to address at that point in the call, but will want to discuss before you end the conversation. For example, the prospect may be in a deep discussion about the problems he or she is having that your solution can solve, and make a parenthetical statement like "Dave mentioned needing this, too, and frankly our new product rollout will be held back unless we find a solution right now." Here, I'd want to find out immediately what the new product is, ask about projected revenue for that product, and really drill down on the rollout issue. But I don't want to forget about Dave, because I'll need to find out who Dave is before the call ends. On my notes, I'll write that statement, and draw a star on the right side of my notes page, with a connecting line to the statement. Before the end of the conversation, all I have to do is scan the right hand side of my notes page for the stars, and ask about each one of them.

2) Use a big enough piece of paper. I've seen reps use sticky notes for notepaper, their writing gets cramped, and they leave important information out for brevity. After the call, they can't remember everything they heard, and it's not on their notes, either.

3) Enter your notes into the CRM database immediately after the call. If not you might forget something important. It's quite common, when putting notes into the database, that you'll realize that you forgot to ask something vitally important to your sale. Because you're entering the notes immediately after the call, you can call right back instantaneously to get the information. And the prospect will be happy to take your second call, because he or she realizes that you were really listening, and that you are thorough.

4) Handwriting your notes is critically important: Unless you're in tech support or entering an order, people don't like to hear you typing on the phone. They intrinsically feel you're not listening, and will slow their conversations to match you, which interrupts their thought process. They'll be far more engaged conversationally if they don't hear you pecking away while they're talking.

These are four basic concepts regarding taking great notes, and why doing so will make you more successful. Add them to your Best Practices playbook. And be sure to post a blog note if you have a great note taking idea that's worked for you!

Want a $100 million deal? Here's how to do it.

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Mark Mantel is a salesperson that attended my inside sales training course a few years ago, and earlier this year, he closed a $100 million dollar transaction. I asked him what sales techniques he used that most contributed to his success in this transaction, and here's what he told me. It's slightly longer than two pages, but well worth reading. Do you think you might want to replicate some of them? Here's what he says:

Hi Geoff,

The best place to start for me is philosophy before getting into "blocking and tackling drills." I know that I have to stay humble, or nothing good will happen that day. Staying humble means that I do not know more than anyone else. If I have that understanding odds are better that I will focus on the prospect/customer as opposed to myself. Conversation flows better, and my ego is not in the way. This actually leads to a very interesting dynamic...a customer's ego can close a sale. Ego can be an individual dynamic or a group energy. People like to be experts and leaders, and they talk more when they feel you consider them one.

The 5 practices you list are an excellent guideline for each day:

• Contact skills. If you can't reach a real person, you can't ask qualification questions, or make a sale. This element focuses primarily on contacting people high on the decision chain.
• Questioning skills. How do you ask every question you'll need to ask in order to fully qualify the prospect, and do it in 10 minutes or fewer? And how do you do it on the first call? This is the essential skillset needed to determine your prospect's business need, and return-on-investment requirements.
• Closing skills. No trickery here. We teach you to frame the solution to make functional and economic sense within the technology and business mindset of the prospect.
• Constructing skills. In enterprise selling, understanding, then charting both the decision, and the sign-off chains of command is critical to the business at hand, and future business as well. We teach you to ask the questions that will enable you to draw a line from your contact directly up to the CEO, and be able to identify everyone in that chain.
• Objection handling skills. Superior questioning skills are the critical element to understanding roadblocks the prospect may unveil during the closing process. Here, we'll discuss the most common objections, and provide specific answered customized to your company's solution.
• When working large sales contact skills take on a dynamic that can be complicated. There are politics, budgets, previous employers, other divisions, and so much more. Understanding how to get to the right people, then when and when NOT TO put them together is an art.

Sales do not succeed if questioning is not a part of my vocabulary. If I am speaking I am buying, if they are speaking...

It is my experience that closing can go significantly faster if people focus on getting basic information early... Requirements, Scope, Decision Process, Time Line, Business Consequences, and Budget. If this information is gathered accurately and early, closing falls into place much easier.

Constructing skills are essential in high dollar value sales. A simple example from your training is the #0 on voicemail....still use it today.

Objection handling skills are a high priority. How many people that you know list all objections they get, then chart out answers? If all the employees were required to handle each objection with the exact same answer think of how powerful that would be? Our group did that for the launch of this product. Additionally, we all agreed to do the first hour of every meeting the exact same way...sure does help when you have to jump a plane and fill in for a colleague. A succinct and strong message universally is powerful.

I guess my response to you is that I stick to the basics. Some additional things:

• Read about your industry...research, breakthroughs, competitors, etc....become an expert.
• Read! It helps to keep the vocabulary sharp.
• Always attend sales training...every year set a calendar and do it!
• Present to colleagues regularly.
• Keep in touch with people in the industry.
• Keep your enemies close.
• Talk with customers on a regular basis to learn their perspective on you, the product, competitors, etc.

     - Mark

P.S.  On that concept, $100,000,000 sales do not happen individually. Large teams with many individual contributions close sales of that size. I was a part of a team. Some titles involved in my large sale:

• VP of Sales
• Sales
• Research
• President of Division
• Network Specialist
• Product Development
• Publishing
• Project Management

OK, it's Geoff here, again. So that's the story of Mark's big sale, and how he and his team accomplished it. He's very good about spreading the credit around his company, too, which is one of the superior team communication skills he has as well. Because he credits others, I'll bet everyone in his company loves working with him. All of you can take Mark's example, use the sales techniques he recommends, and go out and develop an enterprise transaction like this yourself. And you can: Another rep I trained got a $1 million commission check one day. He celebrated by buying himself a motorcycle and traveling around North America for a year. And when he returned, his company welcomed him back! So break your own personal transaction size record this year, use these sales techniques, and add them to your Best Practices playbook.

Winning over your new (or current) manager

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I got an email this week from Jacob, a rep that I trained a few years ago, and who has just gotten a great job at a new company. He wanted some tips on winning over his new manager, who has responsibility for both the field and the inside team. This manager has just come on board, and wasn't involved in hiring him, so he wants to start off with the best impression possible. Here's what I told him, and it's deceptively simple and effective. With minor modifications, it can be used to win over your current manager, too.

• Before your meeting, check out his or her profile on LinkedIn, looking for elements in his or her business and personal life that will give you a little background.
  
• At the meeting, tell your manager that you have 2 objectives at your company:

       1) To make the company a lot of money
       2) To make your (the manager's) job easier

• So ensure that within the first 2 or 3 minutes, you ask the following question: "From my desk, what can I do to make your job easier?"

Managers rarely get asked this question, but it's an important one, and sets the stage that you're going to do whatever it takes to meet objectives, be a team player, and have a good disposition at work. Jacob's got a sunny disposition, he's a hard worker, and has always been a high-earning rep. He's already checked out the manager's LinkedIn profile, and found that the manager came from an area of the country where Jacob's got tons of relatives. I suggested he ask the manager about the challenges faced in changing localities, a good example of a question that can be asked to do some initial bonding without getting too personal too soon.

We sometimes make the mistake of thinking managers and execs aren't just like us, but they are. They mowed lawns or had lemonade stands when they were kids, and made sandwiches or delivered pizzas when putting themselves through college. In management, they're caught between trying to do a great job for the company and being liked by the people that report to them. And they can't be "buddies" because being a good manager is about not playing favorites. It's a tough job, and the fact that you care about making his or her job easier is going to be a real plus and will open important dialogue. You can learn a lot from them, too, by watching how the great ones manage people. You might be looking at your own future, too. More than 100 inside reps I've trained have become managers or execs, and what I've put in this post is exactly what I taught them in our inside sales training courses.  Even if you've been in your job for awhile, it's never too late to buttonhole your manager, ask for a quick 5 minute meeting, and ask the question. That question. Add it to your Best Practices playbook.